


Lie Down in your Lakebed

by orphan_account



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-12
Updated: 2013-10-12
Packaged: 2017-12-29 05:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1001187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Jack realized that he had never stopped drowning.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lie Down in your Lakebed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mynameisyarra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynameisyarra/gifts).
  * Inspired by [His Brightest Light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1001086) by [mynameisyarra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynameisyarra/pseuds/mynameisyarra). 



> yarra makes me want to write angst i'm sorry

Jack’s first memory was of drowning.

Freezing water in lungs he couldn’t feel, breath caught in his throat as his mouth contortioned underwater, screaming and screaming and flooding with ice-water, limbs thrashing against heavy clothes, hot tears rolling down his face and mixing with lakewater.

The moonlight only made the situation worse, flooding him with light the way that it was flooding him with cold, freezing the blood in his veins and the beating of his heart as he drifted ever closer towards the surface.

_(He never told anyone how he fought to sink down, how he wished the ice would reform over his head.)_

 

Meeting Jamie was like pushing his head above the water and gasping, sucking in bucketfuls of air that was like a knife in his lungs, his eyesight fuzzing and then sharpening all at once, his body shaking and living. 

Ten years old, with a light as bright as any snowcap, sparkling spirals of hoarfrost on a window, refusing to fade as the day went on. The brightness in his eyes as he jumped around, smiling widely with his gap-toothed grin, the picture of childish innocence that made Jack’s heart ache for another time. Blanketed in the simple glee and joy of Jamie’s belief, Jack almost felt warm again.

He had really been gifted with the perfect believer. He was always eager, always genuine, with a warm wide smile and ready to play, just mischievous enough for Jack’s favorite kind of games. Spending time with his was like a sunny winter day, perfect for fun, and the frostbringer loved every second of it.

 

His companions grew wary of him and his favored child, warning him with their doubts. He’ll stop believing in you. He’s growing older, Jack. He isn’t normal. Jack merely laughed and flew away, ignoring the seed planted in his mind, wondering why Jamie was no longer on the ‘Nice’ list.

“Oh,” Jamie had laughed, looking sheepishly up at his guardian, “I played a couple of pranks on some kids at school this year. Nothing too bad, honest! I was just trying to be like you, Jack!” 

If he had been any less blinded by his relief, Jack might have noticed the look in the child’s eyes that hinted towards the lies, but he was too happy that his bright light was still shining; ignoring the taint in the light it gave off.

 

When Sophie was crying the next time he visited, Jamie gave him a sugary-sweet wide-eyed smile, and asked Jack to tell him a story. If he was almost sitting in the spirit’s lap, Jack didn’t notice, and the enraptured look in the child’s eyes could tell any amount of lies.

_(He heard the ice crack loudly, but he pretended he didn’t.)_

 

At fifteen, Jamie was still as innocent and perfect as he was as a child, and Jack started to have his doubts. When he arrived, the cold, sneering look on Jamie’s face would slip off into bright, joyful surprise, the knife-points of his smile turning saccharine. 

The wind no longer carried him to Burgess, screaming in his ears and trying to turn him around, whisk him away, so Jack shunned it, flying of his own abilities, burying himself further in his first believer, striving towards that ever brighter light, wondering and wondering when he would reach it. 

Every morning, Jamie would transition from jagged ice to soft snowfall, and Jack found that his fingers grew cold as he reached for the window latch.

_(The sound of ice cracking followed Jack everywhere, but he closed his eyes and ignored it, leaning into Jamie’s touch.)_

 

Jamie would whisper words to him in the late hours of the night, sweet promises and lies that wrapped Jack further around him, until it stopped snowing everywhere but in Burgess. “I’ll always believe in you as long as you’re right here,” he crooned, draping himself over the spirit. “Promise me you won’t go away, okay? Or else I might forget you.”

The Guardians sought him out, voices raised towards their teammate, calling his precious winter-light a witch, telling him that he was ensnared, in a trap, caught beneath the ice, and Jack shut the window and turned his back on them, returning to his snowflake, his northern light, and the smirk that spread across Jamie’s face as he opened his arms to him felt like an icicle to the heart.

_(Ice, ice, ice in his veins, why was that familiar?)_

 

When Jack came to visit on Jamie’s seventeenth birthday, his parents were yelling downstairs. Words like _monster_ and _freak_ and Mrs Bennett’s sobs, _“But he’s your son! You can’t send him away-!”_ before there were arms around his neck and he was pulled down to a knife-slash smile, lips curled over teeth like a graveyard, Jamie’s eyes glinting malevolently, his smile dark.

When harsh lips smashed against him, cutting into his lips and his heart and his thoughts as Jack felt ice-water rushing into his lungs, gasping, his fingers trying to scramble for purchase and burying themselves in Jamie’s sweatshirt.

The light behind his eyes went out and he saw the darkness he had been swimming towards, the frozen husks of his friends floating above him as he hit the lakebed, where the cracked ice and the moonlight could no longer reach him. His breath left his body as he fell into the kiss, mouth red and blue and lifeless as Jamie laughed into his teeth.

_(Jack realized that he had never stopped drowning.)_

**Author's Note:**

> IT WAS BAD AND I'M DONE /drowns


End file.
